Hi All,
over the last 3 month I was working on an fanless NUC case. With the next upcoming posts I want to share with you what I have been able to achieve. In addition I would be happy to get your feedback, exchange learnings and improve the design. Furthermore if there is someone I can partner with I am more than happy to talk. This is a private project and non profitable.
Heatpipe / Cooling
The first part of the project was realted to the cooling of the Intel NUC CPU. In my project I used the NUC8i5 board which uses a IntelŽ Core⢠i5-8259U processor (2.3 GHz - 3.8 GHz, Quad Core, 6 MB Cache, 28W TDP).
The size of the CPU and mounting space was perfect for 4 heatpipes with 8mm.
The first concept was born.
Finally I had someone building the first prototypes for me using copper but as aluminium.
Did you not consider buying the HD PLEX fanless passive NUC kit?
Indeed I did and I have more than 30 emails in my inbox. I know Corona was impacting China a lot but the NUC Kit was communicated to ship end of 2019. Last update was 5/15 (after 5 schedule updates) but still the NUC Kit is not available in their shop.
The case I am using is HW-TC5 but I will show more in the next days.
That case looks like itâs only designed for ITX motherboards, not NUC.
you are too fast for me 
I changed the case so NUC fits, will have more pictures soon but wanted to share current version.
Cool. Well done.
Purdy 
Great. Now do a benchmark using Prime95 torture mode like this, and check that the CPU clock does not slow down (throttle):
Super Sleek!!! Great Job! Unfortunately, Iâm not so industrious anymore - thinking of using a HDPlex H1 V3 for something very similar when their NUC backplates come out (supposedly in June). Enjoy your unit!
The HDPlex cases are very well designed. I have built a Roon Core server around a H3V3 case with a mini-ITX board and the HDPlex 200W ATX combo power supply. The chassis stays cool and the server computer is absolutely quiet, no coil whine, nothing. I am very happy with this setup.
Thinking of doing the same, but with a ROCK/NUC motherboard install. Right now using the original NUC case for my NUC7i7DNHE core server. Thanks!
in case you want one I can help with that.
The case is available as well in a smaller version w/o the heatpipes which I plan to use for an endpoint. So the idea is to get server + endpoint in the same design.
Would this be of value?
Thanks. I am running Linux on the system. Any test you would recommend for linux systems? mprime ok for you?
Sounds good!
any recommendation how to log the sensor data + cpu speed at the same time using linux?
On Ubuntu, install the âsensorsâ package which gives you the sensors command to monitor CPU temperature. And to monitor CPU speed, you can use the command âlscpuââŚ
To remote monitor and administer your Linux box, simply install Cockpit. There is a package for Ubuntu and on my Ubuntu 18.04 LTS it was a thing of two minutes to install and connect using a web browser.
Saw your build on another thread. Very Purty!
